Placing printing elements and mark sensor at proper positions with respect to the cutter member

Abstract

A tape printer, wherein when a label tape ( 36 ) is fed to a tape cutting position after the label ( 39 ) of the label tape ( 36 ) is printed out, the heating elements (R 1 to Rn) of a thermal head ( 9 ) are disposed so as to be opposed to the position of a next printed label ( 39 ) slightly on the upstream side of a label head position on the downstream side of thereof in the feeding direction and to be opposed to the position of the next printed label ( 39 ) on the downstream side of the printing start position thereof (so that a<b can be established in FIG. 7 ), and a mark detection sensor ( 12 )is disposed on the upstream side of the heating elements (R 1 to Rn) so as to be opposed to the position slightly on the downstream side of the position opposed to a position detection mark ( 39 B) (so that c<e can be established in FIG. 7 ).

1. A tape printing device comprising a tape feed unit for feeding a long tape, a printing unit for printing on the tape, and a cutter member being placed on the downstream side of the printing unit for cutting the tape,
 the tape being formed of a label tape in which a plurality of labels are temporarily stuck on a front side of a long strippable sheet being aligned along the length of the strippable sheet, 
 the tape printing device further comprising: 
 a mark sensor which detects position indication marks formed at prescribed positions in a tape feeding direction on a back side of the strippable sheet opposed to corresponding labels respectively; and 
 a control unit which controls the tape feed unit based on a output signal outputted by the mark sensor, 
 the printing unit including a plurality of printing elements, 
 the printing elements being situated on the downstream side of a print start position of a next label which will be printed on next at a point when the label tape after the printing on a label has been fed to a tape cutting position to be cut by the cutter member, 
 the mark sensor being situated on the downstream side of a position indication mark opposed to the next label and on the upstream side of the printing elements at the point when the label tape after the printing on a label has been fed to the tape cutting position to be cut by the cutter member. 
 
   
   
     2. The tape printing device according to  claim 1 , wherein each position indication mark is formed at a position on the downstream side in the feeding direction of a position on the back side of the strippable sheet opposed to a rear end position of each label. 
   
   
     3. The tape printing device according to  claim 1 , wherein the tape has been rolled up in a tape cassette which is detachably loaded in the tape printing device. 
   
   
     4. The tape printing device according to  claim 3 , further comprising a tape type detecting unit which detects the type of the tape rolled up in the tape cassette,
 wherein when the tape is identified by the tape type detecting unit as a label tape, the control unit controls the tape feed unit to feed the label tape to the print start position of each label based on the output signal outputted by the mark sensor. 
 
   
   
     5. A tape printing device for printing on a long tape,
 the long tape is a label tape including: 
 a plurality of labels temporarily stuck on a front side of a long strippable sheet being aligned along the length of the strippable sheet; and 
 a plurality of position indication marks formed on a back side of the strippable sheet along the length of the strippable sheet to be opposed to corresponding labels respectively for enabling detection of each label on the front side, 
 each position indication mark corresponding to each label on the front side being formed at a position on the back side of the strippable sheet that corresponds to a prescribed position on the corresponding label in a tape feeding direction, 
 the tape printing device comprising: 
 a tape feed unit for feeding the long tape; 
 a printing unit for printing on the tape; 
 a cutter member being placed on the downstream side of the printing unit in the tape feeding direction for cutting the tape; 
 a mark sensor which successively detects the position indication marks formed on the long tape when the tape is fed; and 
 a control unit which carries out printing by controlling the printing unit while controlling the tape feed unit based on an output signal outputted by the mark sensor, 
 the printing unit being placed so that the printing unit, at a point when the label tape after the printing on a label has been fed by the control unit to a tape cutting position to be cut by the cutter member, will be situated on the downstream side in the feeding direction of a print start position of a label nearest to the tape cutting position, 
 the mark sensor being placed so that the mark sensor, at the point when the label tape after the printing on a label has been fed by the control unit to the tape cutting position to be cut by the cutter member, will be situated on the downstream side in the feeding direction of a position indication mark corresponding to the label nearest to the tape cutting position and on the upstream side in the feeding direction of the printing unit. 
 
   
   
     6. The tape printing device according to  claim 5 , wherein the printing unit is placed so that the printing unit, at the point when the label tape after the printing on a label has been fed by the control unit to the tape cutting position to be cut by the cutter member, will be situated on the downstream side in the feeding direction of the print start position of the label nearest to the tape cutting position and on the upstream side in the feeding direction of a label front end position of the label nearest to the tape cutting position. 
   
   
     7. The tape printing device according to  claim 5 , wherein a distance L 1  from a position of the printing unit to the print start position of the label nearest to the tape cutting position measured in the tape feeding direction and a distance L 2  from a position of the mark sensor to a position of the position indication mark corresponding to the label nearest to the tape cutting position measured in the tape feeding direction at the point when the label tape after the printing on a label has been fed by the control unit to the tape cutting position to be cut by the cutter member satisfy a relationship L 1 ≧L 2 . 
   
   
     8. The tape printing device according to  claim 5 , wherein on starting the printing on a label, the control unit first searches for the position indication mark by the mark sensor, places the printing unit at a position corresponding to the print start position by feeding the tape by a prescribed distance by the tape feed unit when the position indication mark is detected, and then starts the printing by the printing unit.